Sunday Gold has taken me a bit of time to get around to reviewing. But I promise you that it is worth it. If; you are a fan of turn-based or strategy-based role-playing games to execute your plans. Then I have to say without a shadow of a doubt; Sunday Gold is the game for you.
The game is unique not only in its creative art direction but with how it utilizes the familiar mechanics that we have been used to all these years since they were; introduced in games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
When you start playing Sunday Gold, you will notice that everything you do; is calculated. And when you interact with anything in the game world, it will require AP. AP, being short for Action Points; these Action Points reset after you, end your turn. So, you must carefully plan out what you want to do, how you want to do it, and with which character you want to perform the actions.
In Sunday Gold, there are three playable characters; in the game, and each character. Possess their own; unique skills, traits, and abilities, which help you navigate the game’s worlds. The first and leader of this motley crew is Frank by definition; he is an experienced criminal with a lock-picking ability to break into safes, lockers, and other various items. His other ability is an investigation ability which helps you determine areas you can interact with and discover secrets to solving complicated puzzles. Then we have Sally, Frank’s best mate, and trusted accomplice; she typically likes to solve problems with her brute force, with one of her abilities being lifting heavy objects and the other ability being that of a healer, to put it simply. The white mage fights back. Lastly, there is Gavin; he hacks things such as electronics and security devices to help our group of rogues get through tough spots and uncover the mysteries in Sunday Gold.
As you traverse the world of Sunday Gold, each character’s; special abilities come into play during the game, not just in combat. Depending on how you upgrade your character will also determine how successful using their abilities will be in the field. In my honest opinion, it adds a bit of depth to their character development as both their design and abilities depending on their levels determine the outcome of certain scenarios.
If we use Skyrim, for example, you can keep making lock picks and try again. In Sunday Gold, however, the more you mess up, it could; make your situation worse and eventually; get you caught by enemies.
When we get to the enemies and the story; for that matter, Sunday Gold; is pretty grounded in the sense that a Hollywood heist movie is what we would expect in reality. The story starts as most would, with our main protagonist Frank meeting his old accomplice after a failed heist several years ago at a local pub to discuss business. At this time, you meet Frank’s old accomplice Sally who then introduces Frank to Gavin, who used to work for a multibillion-dollar company as their head of I.T. Before the company let him go. This same company, incidentally, does some shady business outside of resurrecting dead dogs to fight to the death for entertainment value. The plot is simple using Gavin’s experience from his former job in I.T. Break into the company’s servers, get access to their shady corporate information and then blackmail the company for millions.
But, as you might have guessed from my Hollywood analogy, nothing ever goes according to plan, and it is up to our trio of potential benefactors; to not only get to the bottom of the shady business dealings. But also make out like bandits in the first place.
What I do love about Sunday Gold is its attention to detail. The game takes place in a futuristic England; the developers Team17 went out of their way to hire strictly English voice actors for the roles of Frank, Gavin, and Sally, each giving an astounding performance that adds more depth and life to the game’s story. The same can be said; about the game’s soundtrack, which conveys the feeling that you are walking around this corporate building in a manner that is both stealthy and exhilarating, giving me the same feeling I had when I was playing Solid Snake as I set foot onto Shadow Mosses Island.
Lastly, I think; we need to talk about combat because where I love talking about its Action Point system; I need to mention that it carries over into combat.
So, let us say that Frank uses his lock pick ability to open a safe, which takes away 3 of his total Action Points, with each character having a determined amount of Action Points to spend. If; you get caught by security guards or enemies after when combat; starts, you will be down those three Action Points.
When roaming the world, your Action Points recover after you and end your turn. In which the game world makes a move in the background. But, in combat, you can only regain your Action Points by guarding and not fighting back. However, you do; get a defense bonus to reduce the damage you take during this time, so it does kind of work out.
Then when it comes to actual combat, all your attacks are tied to your Action Points, and depending on what you want to do, will determine how many Action Points you have to spend. So, if you have Sally attack with her knuckles, it could be 1 Action Point. However, if you want her to heal a fellow teammate or herself, you will have to spend 3; and wait for an additional turn.
Finally, each enemy has a specific weakness that one of our heroes will have a strength towards in terms of damage types, such as blunt damage, blade damage, or firearms. You can stun an enemy by hitting them over time with multiple attacks, or you can hit them with the damage type they are weak towards to stun them even faster. The rest of the combat plays out; like a typical role-playing game. In which the enemies; will be defeated when you deplete their health to 0.
Conclusion time! Sunday Gold is a very unique story-driven experience that encompasses the best bits of a strategy RPG with great; voice acting, artistic flare, and music. It is a game that I can solidly recommend and strongly advise; that you, dear readers. That you give it a try if you are a big fan of narrative-driven games with a strong focus on role-playing games.
An autistic gamer with opinions on games who also enjoys making dumb videos on the internet!